Your Google Drive isn’t ready? Just wait a day… or maybe two

Google Drive isn't quite ready yet for everyone. If you don't have it yet, be patient.

When we reported Tuesday that Google Drive is here, and you can install it "right now," some of our readers were understandably frustrated that they couldn't, in fact, install it right away.

Some people who signed up were greeted with messages saying that their Google Drive wasn't "ready" yet, with the option to get an e-mail notification when Google had room to let them in. What we're hearing from readers on Twitter is that people who don't get into Drive immediately are rewarded for their patience within a few hours or a day. A handful report having had to wait a couple of days, but 24 hours seems to be the longest wait for the vast majority of folks.

I got in right away, after signing up within five minutes of the service being announced. I have two Google accounts, though, and to test out its availability, I tried to sign up with my second account late yesterday afternoon. Within about 20 hours, I was in. My colleagues are reporting getting in right away, or enduring waits of between 12 hours and a day. Google declined to tell us how many people have signed up and how many have gotten in. The service is rolling out "over the next several weeks," the company told us.

Users of the Google Apps service we've heard from are reporting quick, if not instant, turnarounds—although Google said Apps users still have to go through the same opt-in process as any other user, so it may just be luck.

In a Google Apps administration support page, Google says it is transitioning users' Google Documents list to Google Drive by early summer. The current "opt-in period" will be followed by a temporary opt-out period, and then a full transition of all Apps users to Drive for document storage. Drive appeared in the Google Apps control panel for all administrators on Tuesday, and users at organizations that are Apps customers will get access at the same rate as Google's non-business users. There's one exception to that—users who work for organizations that have chosen the slower, "scheduled release" track for Google Apps won't be able to opt in to Drive until the next batch of scheduled updates.

My turnaround time was 1 day which is very good, however under the Google Drive, collections shared with you disappear. So if you have a lot of documents that other users have shared with you, be prepared to see a very loooong list of documents that you have to sort again.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Edit: Just figured out that the folders actually appear in that really loooong list, which is kinda stupid, but at least they are there.

Heh, I signed up on the first day with immediate activation (one of the lucky ones), installed, played with it for a day, and I have now uninstalled it - it's currently too immature IMHO. Anyone want my drive?

Heh, I signed up on the first day with immediate activation (one of the lucky ones), installed, played with it for a day, and I have now uninstalled it - it's currently too immature IMHO. Anyone want my drive?

i don't like that you can't directly link to images, videos, and other files. you're forced to use google's interface to interact and share and view the file.

Working since day 1 for me - flawless and quick interaction too. Created a new folder and dragged a file into it on my desktop. Instantly found the folder and file on the web. Ditto for my Android phone. Sweet!

I have absolute no idea why you can get frustrated for a service that is free or came as a surprise as for example I did no know about it (free as in getting ads). I got mine 17 hours later and I can now see all my stuff on every device. Nice.

This isn't going to replace Dropbox and its optional feature to upload camera photos from my phone (the camera's colour is off so everything needs to be corrected on a PC.) But getting an extra free 5 GB on top of the 3.25 GB Dropbox has given me is A-OK.

If you already pay for google storage - i.e. the $5 plan that isn't offered any more it will not transfer you drive until you either downgrade to the free or upgrade to the $2.49/month account. It didn't tell me this anywhere or send me an email - I found out because it just so happens that my yearly fee was due and I went to pay it and bam - access.

I got my invitation ~24 hours after requesting it. It then immediately killed my internet as it maxed out my upstream pipe for several more hours syncing 2 gigabytes of data at 1 megabit a sec.

The exact same thing happened to me. Nothing was working. And when my email app tries to check the mail, it times out and Google Drive disconnect. Not mature enough. It lacks a way to throttle the bandwith.